Observations
by Call Me Personality
Summary: "Geniuses are like thunderstorms. They go against the wind, terrify people, clense the air" - Søren Kierkegaard. Short stories about a little thunderstorm and the observations that his friends make of him.
1. Observations

**Hey guys! So I've been meaning to post this story for a few months. This is a small collection of one shots about Reid. Most of them are from other people's point of view and you can visualize them pretty much at any point of the show. Most of these are going to be during Emily's run, but a few might feature Blake because I really love the Mother Son thing she and Reid have. So I'll update when I have something. :)**

 _"What is important is not what you hear said, its what you observe."-Michell Connelly_

Morgan had known Reid for seven years and he still didn't understsnd him. Seven years was a long time, and most people would feel a level of unsertanding with their best friend after that amount of time. And, God he knew him. He knew everything. But those parts didn't make a reasonable whole. Two plus two did not equal four. Not with Reid. Not with what he knew about him.

Like he knew that Reid didn't like to be touched. He said that his skin crawled every time someone brushed by him or patted his back. Most of the team avoided touching him for that reason. For some reason, he and Garcia were allowed to touch him. He assumed it was because of a closer personal connection.

He knew that, in private, Reid often had emotional reactions to cases involving children. He figured that they hit pretty close to home.

He knew that he had symptoms of post traumatic stress. God knew what that kid went through with a dead beat dad and a psychotic mom. Reid hadn't told him much. He had recalled an incident when he was 13, his mother trying to stab him and then locking him in his bedroom closet for three days. His nightmares had gotten so bad at that point that he woke up screaming every night in a cold sweat.

He knew that he didn't have a fully developed self-image. It was squewed by guilt, fear, and shame. It was evident everytime someone praised him, he turned his head down and shook it a bit, not accepting that he'd done well, and when he saw victims of the crimes that they investigated. The way he looked at them, as though he had been sitting where they were.

All of these were signs of childhood molestation.

He couldn't even think about it. He couldn't imagine someone doing that to Reid. He knew for a fact that it wasn't his mother. He had met her. She was kind and loving, she made him sit down and stay still while she inspected a bruise on his face. She ran her hands through Reid's hair. She called everyday to make sure he was okay. She was the only person outside of the team that he loved. She loved him. She couldn't.

But he didn't know Reid's dad. And Reid shook at the very mention of him. Whether from fear or anger, he may never know.

He knew a few other things too. That he was allergic to penuts, that he didn't the smell of lilac, that he still used Maeve's shampoo. He knew which pills he needed to take and when. Anxiety in the morning, because it made his legs shake and he couldn't sleep, thiriod at lunch, because the others didnt settle well with food, and schizophrenia at night because it made his drowsy. He knew that he couldn't choose a favorite color because he liked them all, that he had never owned a single TV, his apartment was stacked to the ceiling with books, and that he didn't like wearing button ups without a tie.

But that was just observation. That was just information that he had collected over time from watching, not asking. Reid didn't talk to him. He didn't talk to anyone. He never left his apartment except for work and to see his mom, and he or Garcia had to call to remind him to eat. He often muttered to himself, not anything intelligent, just Bob Dillian songs. Sometimes, he would only answer to Spencer, sometimes only to Reid. His mood could change deadly fast, even with no reason. And when he didn't take his meds, he was absolutely terrifying.

Either he was shaking in a corner with his gun or kitchen knife and attacking anything he saw or he was raging around his apartment destroying everything. The breaks got worse after Maeve's death. Crying, screaming, aiming his gun for an imaginary stalker, trying to protect something long gone. And Morgan was always there, there to hold him, to hide the weapons, to get him to take his meds. He always said that they were coming for him. Morgan still didn't know who or what "they" were.

But Reid could be happy. Reid could be an extraordianrily optamistic person. Morgan was watching him from across the room at his desk, his left hand flying over the key board, his right filling out papers. When one got tired he switched. Ambidextrous son of a bitch. Morgan could get a lot more done if he could work with two hands.

The door to the office opened and Henry and Will stepped inside. With a shriek of "Uncle Spence!" tired eyes lit up at Henry charged into his arms for a tight hug.

"Hey there, Henry, how you doing?" He said lifting him up and holding tight. He smiled at Will who stood to the side watching the two.

"Good!" Henry said, lifting up Reid's hair.

"Can you wave to Uncle Derek and Aunt Emily?" He said as he turned toward the other two. They both smiled and waved. "How about we go see your Mommy, and then I'll take you to see Auny Penelope." Henry nodded vigourusly as Reid carried him up to see JJ talking to the boy the whole way there.

Morgan knew Reid better than anyone, but he still didn't understand him. His mind was so complicated and so beautiful, how could anyone navigate it without getting lost? And maybe that was for the best. So he didn't understand. Maybe he wasn't supposed to.

 **I hope you enjoyed! Pretty please review! It makes my day! Thanks for reading!**


	2. Rest

**Hey guys! Im glad you emjoyed the last chapter thanks to Cas67Impala, fishtrek, and SpiderFangWolverine123 for reviewing! You guys are awesome! Oh and I do want to explain a few things that I noticed in the last chapter. First, my time lines were off Emily was in the story after Maeve had died, at which time Blake was on the team. Also, my decisions about Reid's schizophrenia. I wrote the first chapter within the first few months of starting the show as I didn't really know too much about the continuation of his condition. I just assed that it was there but manageable. I was wrong, but I left it in because it added a good dinamic to the story and a later chapter. I aplogize for my mistakes guys! Thanks fof being so nice about them in the comments! Please enjoy this chapter!**

 **Oh I don't own Criminal Minds, btw forgot last chapter.**

 _"There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither." -Alan Cohen_

Movie night was the best night of the week, in Derek Morgan's opinion. Beers, friends, classic films. Everything that made life good all rolled into one six to eight hour event. Hotch would smile and JJ would loosen up and Reid would be quiet for more than two minuets at a time. Best night of the week.

And the best thing about it was that, no matter where they were, they always had it. As long as there wasn't a case to be worked on, movie night was unavoidable. They had even had one in six different states and two contries, everyone spread around for a vacation week, Garcia patching them together over a video feed.

That particular Friday night in mid December was no different. The whole team was gathered in Morgan's living room, the large book shelf he was repairing for Reid scooted into the dinning room to create room for the five large pop corn bowls and the rocking chair from the guest room. Blankets were distributed out for cold feet and two twelve packs were broken into. The Jurassic Park trilogy was spread out on the coffee table between the bowls. Rossi was standing over the DVD player, mashing buttons and yelling at the object while Garcia cringed. She eventually stood from her spot on the couch on Morgan's left to take over, showing Rossi how to work it.

"Come on, Rossi, that's gotta be what, fifty times she's shown you how to work that thing." Morgan commented, smiling at the dirty look his superior flashed him.

"Twenty-four." Reid mumbled to his left, not looking up from the case file in his lap. Morgan winced for a split second. If the kid would just relax once in a while maybe he would actually get some sleep.

His mood began to pick up again as the movie started, one arm slung around Garcia's shoulders, one around Reid's, he was completely at home.

Rossi was the first to leave, as usual. He turned in after the second movie, having the longest commute home. Halfway through the third, Hotch left, explaining that he still had paper work to do. God he was surrounded by workaholics. Soon after, Emily, JJ, and Garcia left together to have the rest of the evening as a"ladies night."

Which left Reid, sitting on his couch in the same possition, only with two files now stacked beside him, a third in his lap. How the kid figured out these cold cases going back to the late 1800s he still didn't know.

"Hey, Doc, you want anything?" He knew by now that Reid was crashing in his spare bedroom, like he did on most movie nights.

"A soda would be great." He said, looking up from the file for a moment.

"Sure thing, genius." Morgan said, patting him on the back. He stopped for a moment after feeling the tension under the kid's oversized sweater that he reserved for cold nights.

"Woah, when was the last time you had a good massage?" He asked teasingly, begining to rub circles into Reid's back.

"Never. Wow that feels really weird." Reid squirmed a little under Morgan's touch but didn't out right move away.

"It hurts but it feels really good?" Reid nodded. "Thats because your muscles are so tense that they're sore when they relax. You've never had a massage before?"

"Never seen the use." Reid explained. "Now I kind of want one everyday."

Morgan moved slowly up and down Spencer's back, rubbing circles and claming every muscle that was screaming with stress. He finally finished, Reid nearly asleep beneath his hands.

"I want to sleep for a month, now." Reid commented.

"Well, you can't hibernation through your responsibilities, Kid, but you can sleep for the next two days." Morgan laughed at how pleased Reid was with this.

"That sounds amazing. I think I'll do that." Reid stood and swayed over to the guest room. "Goodnight, Derek." He said through a yawn.

"Night kid." He replied with a smile.

Movie night, in Derek's opinion, was the best night of the week.

 **Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	3. Mistakes

**Hey guys! So I know that its been a while, but I'm back! So, a few things to know about this chapter, this happens about two months after Gideon dies, so its a bit sad at the end. I really love this chapter. And I have a lot more to post more soon! If you guys have any quotes that you want me to base a story after, leave them in the comments and I'll write them! Okay, enoy!**

 _"Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others." -_ Brandon Mull

Hotch had noticed something rather amusing about Spencer. It was one of those things that you wouldn't notice on a usual day, but when you come to a point where you're either too tired or too awake to do anything except notice the little things, it stuck out like a sore thumb. He first saw it one late evening at the office when Morgan got up for coffee. Somehow, when shared between all of the people on the floor, the handle had become crooked, and had thrown off the way that the coffee poured. This resulted in steaming coffee pouring all over Morgan's hand. He cursed, dried his hand off, and returned to his desk. A few hours later, Reid stood to retrieve a pick-me-up and, in the most casual, mindless way, tilted the coffee pot just the right way so that it wouldn't attack his hand like Pomei, all while still reading a case file. Reid hadn't even looked up when Morgan had spilled the coffee and Derek had been the first one to do it. He shouldn't have been able to do something like it was muscle memory when he'd never done it before.

Hotch stood leaning against the banister, transfixed with another addition to what Rossi had named "The Spener Paradox." One night over beers, Morgan, Emily, and Garcia had started a list of weird and facinating things that made up Reid. Eventually, everyone joined in, Reid himself even jotting down a few habits of his.

Rossi soon joined him on the banister, curious as to what Hotch was so focused on. He didn't say anything, just let Hotch start in his own time.

"You know," Hotch began, "when I was teaching Reid how to put together a sniper rifle, whenever we fixed one thing, another appeared, and he would get so turned around over thinking it that he would waste all of his time on what should have been the easy parts."

"I remember Gidieon calling me laughing about how red you got after two hours of Spencer trying to convince you that it didn't make sense to put the magazine in the right way because it would be much more practical the other way around." Hotch chuckled at the memory and how angry he had been at the time when he now had a kid who could almost beat Mick Rawson when putting a rifle together. It seemed foolish.

"But the interesting thing is that he finally got it when I put him in a room full of other agents who were learning and making the same mistakes. He just watched them and then reverse engineered what they messed up. He had the thing together in a half-minute." Rossi smiled and nodded, thinking for a moment, deciding how he wanted to say what was on his mind.

The team was very careful when making observations about each other to the rest of the team. Two words next to eachother in the wrong place can disrupt the entire view that someone has on someone else. They took their time, formed their words in their heads made sure that they were right.

"Most people who are smart enough to function learn from their mistakes the best. Over time, they begin to develope the way that works according to their mistakes. But, when you have someone like Spencer, he's smart enough to learn from other people's mistakes. People like Spencer have always been outcasts. They know how to look as see and learn. They have observed for so long that its natural for them to see a mistake and fix it in their freakishky big heads."

Hotch turned it over in his mind and liked the way it sounded, decided that the discription fit the kid like a tailored suit. He smiled a sad smile as a relization hit him.

"What?" Rossi asked, noticing the change in mood. Hotch smiled again and answered quietly.

"Gidieon used to do that."


End file.
